


Eureka Wholesale

by snack_size



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No Kaiju, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-16
Updated: 2013-11-18
Packaged: 2018-01-01 18:20:37
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1047085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snack_size/pseuds/snack_size
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In need of money, college/graduate students Yancy and Raleigh get a job doing deliveries and other tasks for Eureka Wholesale, owned by Herc Hansen. They're soon pretty sure that things aren't exactly as they seem. And it only gets worse when Raleigh gets embroiled with Herc's undergrad son, Chuck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I don't even know anymore. It just happened [after I saw this on my dash](http://snack-size.tumblr.com/post/67113793321/wantonlywindswept-travelerfound) last night, and then people encouraged it. And then it was just going to be a little drabble, and now it has chapters...

“Oi! Careful with the azaleas, Becket,” said Herc.

“I think I’ve got the hydrangeas, actually?” Yancy replied. Then he yawned, almost dropping his tub of flowers.

“Not you. Other Becket,” Herc said. He set down his own large container of flowers and sighed. “Morning, Mona,” he said to the owner of the first floral shop on their delivery list that morning.

“Oh, hello, Herc,” she said. “Let me just get your, ah-” She walked over to the cash register and then handed Herc a plain white envelope. Herc weighed it in his hands and nodded his head at her.

“C’mon, then, plenty more drops this morning,” he said to Yancy and Raleigh.

 _Drops?_ Raleigh mouthed at Yancy, who shrugged his shoulder. They’d only been working with Herc for three days, now, after Mako's father had referred them to him because his other two employees had just moved out of town.

“How hard can it be?” Raleigh asked, after Mako presented them with the opportunity. “It’s for a flower shop!” Wholesale flower distributor, as it turned out. Yancy had almost refused the job offer when he found out they would need to get to the job at five in the morning to start making the deliveries. He only relented when Raleigh reminded him how much they needed the money.

“Right, then,” Herc said, as Yancy shoved Raleigh in next to their new boss in the truck and then took the window seat. He peaked into the white envelope, flicked his fingers through to count the bills, and nodded his head. He tucked it under the car seat. “Next we’re going to Michael’s - right dickhead.” He grunted.

They were back at Herc’s warehouse by eight in the morning after making their standard round of deliveries. “Now just need to clean all this out,” Herc said, motioning at the plastic tubs and buckets all of the flowers had come down from Canada in. “Got a hose over there. I have some calls-” A sharp bell interrupted him. “That’d be the door,” he said. He started to talk to the man at the door.

Raleigh couldn’t help but look to see who it was - and good thing he did, too, because their visitor was _hot._ Sort of brownish-red hair, huge dimples when he wasn’t scowling, and accompanied by a really wrinkly bull dog. Yancy elbowed him in the ribs. “Ow!”

“Want to get out of here by ten, Rals, I’ve got class at noon,” Yancy replied.

Herc closed the door and sighed, then walked into his office as he leveled his gaze at the two of them. “You got it down?” he asked.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Yancy said. He rolled his eyes at Raleigh.

“He was hot!” Raleigh replied.

* * *

 

Raleigh had to admit that Herc was quite fit for someone his age. But he never would have thought his boss was a complete bad ass - and, OK, he might be stereotyping, given he owned a flower wholesaling business.

When Herc saw the mugger try to grab the purse of a passer-by as they were unloading flowers he actually had the time to carefully set down the tub he was carrying before sprinting after the mugger, grabbing him in a choke hold, pulling both his arms behind his back and shoving his face into the sidewalk. “The fuck you think you’re doing?” Herc growled and pressed his own face close to the mugger’s.

“Aw, fuck,” Raleigh said as Yancy applauded. “That is seriously bad ass.”

“One of you want to come and get the lady back her purse?” Herc asked, adjusting his hold on the mugger. Raleigh nodded and walked over.

* * *

 

Raleigh inwardly sighed and melted when the Mysterious Dimpled Stranger returned, bull dog trotting behind him. And this time he entered the warehouse. “Oi, come on, old man-” he said. Sounded an awful lot like Herc-

“I said no, Chuck, how many times do we need to - Chuck, this is Raleigh and Yancy. Helping out with deliveries.”

Chuck was wearing a leather jacket despite the fact that it was still the end of August. He narrowed his eyes at the two of them, but Raleigh felt his gaze linger slightly when he got to Raleigh. _Yeah, that’s right,_ Raleigh thought.

“My son, Chuck,” Herc added.

 _Goddamnit,_ Raleigh thought.

“And that’s Max,” Herc said.

Suddenly, Eureka Wholesale’s logo made a lot of sense. Raleigh had just thought - well, some people liked bulldogs, and the flowers he had clenched in his teeth showed they were a floral wholesaler, so.

“So you’re the mascot,” Yancy said. He kneeled down and Max trotted over towards him. Dogs seemed to really like Yancy, for some reason. He scrunched his ears and made some indeterminate sounds at the dog. “He’s awfully cute, isn’t he, Rals?” he asked.

“Very,” Raleigh agreed, and then groaned inwardly when he realized Yancy hadn’t met the dog.

“Well, nice meet n’ greet and all,” Chuck said. “But I want to talk about-”

“Fine, fine, just get in the office,” Herc said. He glanced back at the brothers as Chuck strode towards the office and Max obediently followed behind. Herc rolled his eyes.

* * *

 

“Shoulda mentioned,” Herc said that afternoon as he peeled his button down off. “Can get awful hot in here. Have to pay to cool off the flowers, not the warehouse,” he said, nodding towards the large coolers that lined both walls of the warehouse.

“Right,” Raleigh said, but he was more riveted by the large amount of tattoos on Herc’s upper arms and back - some of them were even bad tattoos, like eagles and hearts with names in them and what appeared to be barbed wire around a very nicely defined upper arm muscle. “Makes, uh, sense.”

“Now you’re checking out the boss,” Yancy replied, when Herc went over to answer the door. “First his son, then-”

“I was not!” Raleigh hissed. “I just! I was looking at his tattoos!”

“Mmmhmm,” Yancy said. Raleigh had hoped for the return of Chuck, but instead two dark-haired men in suits stood in the doorway. They looked like gangsters, and Raleigh couldn’t figure out how they could have anything to do with Herc.

“M’not giving you any more ammunition,” they heard Herc growl after a few terse minutes of conversation passed. “Now go and do your job. I want it taken care of.” He closed the door.

Both of them went back to hosing out the flower buckets when Herc turned and made his way back to the office.

* * *

 

On Saturday night they fully intended to go out - first Saturday of the new semester, and all, and Yancy had been rhapsodizing to Raleigh from the shower about some incredibly good looking girl in his one seminar that he wanted to try and find. “I hope you mean in your graduate seminar, not the seminar you’re teaching,” Raleigh replied.

“I’m not the one who’s a letch!” Yancy said. Raleigh shook his head, not sure what he meant.

Then, as Yancy was getting dressed, Mako turned up with two bottles of wine and they quickly became side tracked. “I just do not understand,” she said. She was struggling with the professor she was working as a TA with. “Dr. Gottlieb is very smart, but as soon as Dr. Geiszler comes around he…” she shook her head.

They were one bottle of her wine and one bottle of Yancy’s wine in and had forgot immediate plans to go out. Mako was laying with her head in Raleigh’s lap and Yancy was sprawled with his legs over the side of the ratty overstuffed chair they had. “We’re working for a mob boss,” Raleigh replied.

“What?” Mako and Yancy asked.

"Herc?" Mako added.

“Think about it!” Raleigh said. “He’s always getting cash in white envelopes from the flower shop owners-”

“You think he’s a floral mob boss?” Yancy asked.

“No, dumbass,” Raleigh said. “I think he’s, uh, laundering money through the floral wholesale operation, right, because who is going to check up on that? Right, Mako?”

“It is innocuous,” Mako replied, obviously intoxicated because she was considering it. “Also with the varying price of flowers and import duties it would be quite easy to-”

“Do not encourage him,” Yancy hissed, and poured himself another bottle of wine. Then he blinked several times and looked at Raleigh.

“He calls the deliveries drops! And the tattoos! He has a lot of tattoos, and some of them, are like...bad tattoos,” Raleigh continued. “And he’s pretty attractive, so there’s no reason-”

“Bad tattoos can happen to attractive people,” Mako replied. “I do not think-”

“He took down a mugger with his bare hands,” Yancy said.

“Yeah, see! And there were those guys in the suits that turned up, he said he wasn’t giving them anymore ammunition and to get the job done!” Raleigh said. Mako flinched as he waved his hands around. “And he has a hot son.”

“I do not think that has anything to do with-” Mako began.

“Oh, fuck, he is totally a mob boss, isn’t he?” Yancy asked. Raleigh nodded, his expression solemn. Then he looked at the clock. “Goddamnit.”

“What?” Mako asked.

“Yancy wants to go and find laaadies,” Raleigh said.

“I am not enough?” Mako asked.

Yancy considered this and blinked at her. “I’m pretty sure your father knows five different ways to kill me with just his stare. Or he’d send his entire ROTC command on me.” Mako smiled at him.

“Let’s go find you ladies, Yancy,” she said. “I will even help.” Yancy looked slightly petrified at the idea, but Raleigh shook his head quickly at him.

* * *

 

Raleigh sighed as the lady Yancy had been searching for tilted her head back and laughed at whatever he was saying. “Another night hoping my headphones don’t fall out so I don’t have to listen to-”

“Maybe he will go back to her apartment,” Mako said. “Yours is sort of a…”

“Shithole?” Raleigh asked. One of the many reasons they needed the job with Herc - find an apartment where the shower didn’t leak, the kitchen didn’t seem actively interested in attacking you, the heat dependably functioned. And then there were all the books Raleigh needed to get for classes-

“Yes,” Mako said. “You do not see anyone of interest?” Raleigh shook his head.

“Let me walk you home,” he said. Mako smiled.

A few blocks from Mako’s apartment he noticed a lone figure sort of stumbling around. “Uh, hey, you OK?” he asked.

“Fuck off!” came the reply.

Raleigh squinted as the kid found his way under a street light. He sighed. “Aren’t you Herc Hansen’s kid?” he asked.

“The fuck you care?” Chuck - it was Chuck, right? - asked. He was really drunk. His accent was almost indecipherable.

“I work for him? Raleigh Becket?”

“Oh, Raaaaaaaaaleigh,”Chuck said.

“Come on,” Raleigh said. “Let me walk you home.” Probably not a good idea to leave your secret mob boss’s son staggering around to pass out on the sidewalk and puke on himself.

“Walk me home?” Chuck asked. “Like some sorority girl?”

“I guess,” Raleigh said. “In the sense I don’t want you to choke on your own vomit.”

Chuck considered him for a moment and then grinned. “That’s nice, Ray.”

“Raleigh.”

“Yeah, whatever.” He waved his hand and, since he didn’t really acquiesce to Raleigh’s offer, Raleigh just kept a few paces behind him.

Raleigh was relieved when he saw the headlights and he flagged down the cab. “Come here,” he said.

“One hundred dollar clean up fee if he throws up,” the cab driver said as Raleigh handed him some money that he really couldn’t spare.

“Yeah, well, that’s on him,” Raleigh said. “Fuck.” Chuck had wandered off towards the garden of a house. Raleigh gently took him by the shoulders and steered him towards the cab.

“This is how you treat a lady, Raaaleigh, real nice,” Chuck said, and grinned at him.

“I’m not-” Raleigh began, and Chuck grabbed a hold of his shirt and tried to pull him in the cab on top of him. “I’m just going to walk home,” he said. “I live right over there.” He waved his hand in the direction of their apartment where Yancy hopefully wasn’t having loud, weird sex. “Just go home, drink a bottle of water, and take some tylenol, OK?”

“Thanks, mum,” Chuck said, and closed the cab door.

Raleigh sighed.

* * *

 

“I couldn’t figure out why you were texting me like this,” Yancy said, as soon as he opened the door to the apartment the next morning. “Then I realized you lost your phone to some foul mouthed little asshole-”

“Oh,” Raleigh said. “Oh, fuck, good.” He couldn’t figure out what he’d done with the phone - and the last thing he needed was having to pay for a replacement. “Wait, what?”

“Look,” Yancy said. He tossed Raleigh’s phone at him. Raleigh caught it. “I got bagels.”

“Oh, great,” Raleigh said, and he dug into the bag from their favorite shop.

 _U dumb cunt you left your fucking phone in the cab,_ said the first text message.

 _Do u want it back or not?_ was the next

 _Probably,_ Yancy replied.

“Uh, why did you engage him?” Raleigh asked, mouth full of bagel.

“Him?” Yancy asked. He arched an eyebrow and grinned. “You found a him? And left your phone-”

“I just put him in a cab! He was drunk!” Raleigh protested.

“Aw, look at you, little bro, doing the right thing,” Yancy said.

“Well, I-” Raleigh kept reading. _Well get ur dumb ass over here and get it._

_Where is here? ;)_

“Why a winky face?”

“I didn’t know,” Yancy said. “I figured, you know, try and help you out a bit-”

“Fuuck,” Raleigh said.

 _better go fuck yourself,_ was the reply, followed by, _Sutton 213_. Thankfully, Yancy hadn’t engaged further.

 _R u still there?_ Raleigh typed. It had been fifteen minutes.

_the fuck do u think I’m going?_

_breakfast?_ Raleigh asked.

_u know what? I saved your cell phone, u can bring me some damn coffee._

“I’m just gonna take this, OK?” Raleigh said, picked up the coffee Yancy had likely got for him and the bag of bagels.

“Go and get him!” Yancy said. "You can do it!"

* * *

 

Raleigh wasn’t sure what he anticipated. It certainly wasn’t getting his phone thrust at him and getting simultaneously relieved of his coffee and bagel offering.

“Thanks,” said Chuck, hair everywhere and wearing an almost sheer tank top and pajama pants that were too big and drooping, exposing his deltoids and line of soft hair trailing down to-

Raleigh swallowed hard. Chuck looked down, met his gaze, and smirked at Raleigh.

“I said thanks, Raaaaaaleigh,” said Chuck. Raleigh got a glimpse of the neatest and most organized dorm room he had ever seen. “I’ve got loads of work to do.” Then he closed the door.

Raleigh was left standing in the dorm hall, perplexed about the encounter. Chuck had known what he was doing with those pants, he had to have. He had smirked at him.

 _Secret mob boss’s son,_ he told himself. _Secret mob boss’s son._


	2. Chapter 2

“Lilah said she would be here,” Yancy said. He leaned against the kitchen counter and frowned.

“Maybe it was a distraction,” Raleigh said. He didn’t really know anyone at the house party - he was still finishing up his undergraduate degree, and most everyone seemed to be from Yancy’s program or another science graduate program.

“What?”

“Well, maybe you weren’t that good in bed - ow!” he said, though he should have anticipated the elbow in his gut.

“Haven’t received any complaints,” Yancy countered.

“Right, because you’ve got anonymous comment cards outside the door,” Raleigh replied.

“There she is!” he said, and shifted his posture into something slinky and cat-like. Raleigh sighed as he walked off. There was no doubt he was on the prowl.

Raleigh turned to get himself another drink at the kitchen bar. “Fuck, don’t they have anything fucking decent?” said the person next to him.

“Chuck?”

Chuck Hansen looked at him and grinned, revealing those mesmerizing dimples. “Hey, Ray,” he said.

“Raleigh,” he replied, instinctively. Chuck’s grin just widened. “There’s beer in the fridge.”

“Yeah, Keystone shite. Like someone drank a proper beer and pissed it out into that can. Ah, vodka.” Chuck poured some in Raleigh’s glass, then in his own.

“I, um-”

“Man up, Becket,” said Chuck. “Though I understand, you Americans being pussies about drinking and all-” Raleigh sighed. He knew that he shouldn’t be so incensed by a critique of his manhood using a woman’s genitalia as a pejorative - and, why yes, he did have enough classes for a woman’s study minor, why do you ask?

They both chugged more than a shot, then Chuck made him a vodka tonic. “So, what’s your major, Raaaleigh?”

Raleigh tried to figure out if this was a joke or not, the play on the typical college pick-up line. Didn’t matter. Dimples. “English,” he said. “And American Studies.”

“The fuck is that?” Chuck asked. “You take classes on fake football, nachos and invading places you shouldn’t get involved in?”

“Well...sort of?” Raleigh said. “How about you?”

“Mechanical engineering and physics,” Chuck said.

“Shit,” Raleigh replied. Chuck cocked his head.

“No thoughtful reflective bullshit for me,” he replied. “You gonna get a job with that, anyway?”

Raleigh wasn’t sure how to answer that - it had taken him awhile, and he’d gone on and off, working construction some semesters instead to help pay their rent and expenses, help Yancy out so he could study full. Yancy was the smart one. Raleigh got some aid, and Yancy got a full scholarship, but still.

On the other hand - he sort of liked construction, but his mom had wanted this for him, for both of them to degrees, so he figured he would just study what he wanted and… “Yeah,” he said. “I think so.”

“That right?” Chuck asked. “How’d you wind up here, anyway, this place is full of fucking science nerds - I can think of something better we can do.”

“Really?” Raleigh asked. He hoped Chuck wasn’t going to suggest the bar that doubled as a club on a weekends where most of the undergrads would go to grind into each other. Not that Raleigh was opposed to grinding into Chuck-

“You’re a dumbass,” Chuck said, then leaned in. Raleigh’s chest tightened and his heart fluttered as Chuck put his lips right by his ear. “I could suck your cock, to start. Then you could fuck me.”

“Oh.” Raleigh said, and Chuck pulled back and grinned at him.

“Or I could do you, if that’s how you like it,” he said. “Don’t look so surprised - you’re not exactly subtle with those looks of yours. Good thing my dad is dumb as shit-”

“Oh, don’t even mention that,” Raleigh said, instantly feeling his burgeoning hard-on go away.

“Right,” Chuck said. “Well, yours or mine?”

Raleigh debated - get back at Yancy, for years of secondhand embarrassment? Or brave the undergrad dorms? At least Chuck had a single...in the end, though, it was hygiene considerations that ran out. Raleigh was not cleaning up in a communal bathroom.

“Mine,” he said.

* * *

 

Chuck slipped out of his pants and shirt as soon as they got in the apartment, and- “Fuck," Raleigh said.

“Mmm?” Chuck asked, and he was fucking cut and knew it. He wouldn’t have worn those low slung boxer briefs otherwise. And then there was the hair on his chest, the trail down, soft and lighter red than his hair and- “Yeah, I work out.”

“Uh…” Raleigh said, and Chuck pressed against him and pulled his shirt off. Then he licked his lips and kissed him, and Raleigh sort of - was this going to be a thing with kissing? He didn’t object, he just figured, the way Chuck was talking… _no, shut up, brain,_ he thought. _Hot Aussie man in your apartment, willing to have sex. Multiple dimples._

So Raleigh kissed back, hard, and pressed Chuck against the wall. Chuck growled into the kiss. “That how you want it?”

“Just want you,” Raleigh said. “Don’t care how.”

“That’s good, Raaaaleigh,” Chuck said. “Hate it when guys don’t switch off.” Raleigh wasn’t sure why but that made his cock twitch.

They made it to the bed after that and Chuck rolled over him and kissed him - trailed down his neck, his chest, his stomach. He laughed at Raleigh’s smooth chest and thumbed his nipples. “Seriously, you wax?” he asked.

“No, actually,” Raleigh said. “I know, it’s...go ahead, you can laugh.” Chuck kissed him, instead. Raleigh just shaved the sad little tuft of hair that had sprouted between his pecs. _Beckets,_ Yancy said, _cut just like Greek statues._ “Are you - ooooh,” he said, as Chuck slid his boxer briefs down and mouthed at his cock, eager and quick. “Oh, fuck.”

“Told you I would,” Chuck said. He slid his tongue up, down, around and then took Raleigh down slowly, gagging slightly. When he did Raleigh ran his fingers through his hair.

“Fuck, fuck, you’re fucking good,” Raleigh said. He felt Chuck grin around his dick, and then he continued, doing things with his tongue that were just - and circling his head, moaning slightly. "Oh, fuck, fuck!"

Chuck released him with a salacious pop. “You gonna fuck me?”

Raleigh considered this - Chuck’s firm, rounded ass, the dimples he had above it on his back. “I’d like you to fuck me,” he said. Chuck gave him a half grin and Raleigh reached into his drawer for lube and condoms.

Chuck - the little shit - took his time opening him up. He grazed Raleigh’s prostate over and over, worked it from the outside with his thumb and inside with his fingers, spread him and stretched him and tore him apart. Raleigh was pressing into him, fucking himself on those fingers, and Chuck was just grinning at him. “Fuck, that’s hot,” Chuck said.

He slid the condom on and lubed himself. “No, more,” Raleigh said, and Chuck arched an eyebrow. “Wanna see you touch yourself.”

“Pervert,” Chuck said, but he complied, slid his hand slowly up and down his dick.

Raleigh shifted his legs and let Chuck in - he anticipated one hard slide but Chuck was careful, stroked the inside of Raleigh's thigh as he moved inwards. “Yeah?”

“Fuck, yeah, Chuck, just fuck me, open me up with your cock, I want it,” Raleigh said. He moved against Chuck and Chuck groaned. When he thrust all the way in both of them groaned, then Raleigh circled his hips and clenched. “That feel good, Chuck, deep inside me-”

“You are not going to narrate this whole fucking thing, are you?” Chuck asked.

“Maybe,” Raleigh said. Chuck put his hand over his mouth as he pulled out, and Raleigh grinned at licked at his fingers. Chuck shook his head and giggled, just slightly - _and fuck, if he was ticklish,_ Raleigh thought - and then let Raleigh suck on his fingers.

“Oh, fuck, yes,” Chuck said, as Raleigh mouthed on them like he would Chuck’s cock. Chuck established a hard, smooth rhythm and both of them moved in together with it. Raleigh arched his hips as Chuck thrust into him and, fuck, the kid was good at this. No wonder he was such a smug bastard.

Raleigh moaned around Chuck’s fingers as his orgasm began to build and Chuck pulled them back, stroked his hair a little. “Now you can talk.”

“That is so fucking good, more, like that, oh, fuuuuuuck!” Raleigh said, finally getting the direct hit to his prostate he’d been craving. Stars burst in his vision and he opened his mouth to moan. Chuck’s cock was filling him, perfect, sliding in and out of him and he felt that wonderful warmth spreading from his balls to the tip of his cock.

He came first and Chuck fucked him through it, thrusts erratic until he came himself. He lay draped over Raleigh for a minute and then slid out, tied off the condom and threw it on the floor. Then he looked at Raleigh.

Raleigh, still in his high, post-orgasmic state, wanted one thing. He spread his arms opened to Chuck and gave him his most inviting grin. Chuck huffed, like he was annoyed, and then laid on his back. Raleigh curled into his and put his head on Chuck’s chest. “That was really good,” he said.

“Course it was,” Chuck replied.

“I’m gonna make you waffles,” Raleigh added.

“Waffles?”

“Not everyone gets waffles,” Raleigh said.

“What, you got a sliding scale - poptarts to waffles?” Chuck asked. “Bagels, pancakes somewhere in the middle-”

“Cereal without milk to belgian waffles with ice cream,” Raleigh replied, just to get Chuck to make a grumpy face. It worked. “Maybe next time,” he said, hoped it wasn’t presumptuous. Chuck blinked at him and then smiled, just slightly, so Raleigh pulled himself up onto his arms and kissed Chuck.

“Ice cream,” Chuck said, and shook his head.

* * *

 

Yancy came back just as Raleigh was finishing cleaning up and Chuck was headed out the door. Yancy mouth opened, slightly, but then he salvaged the situation for a moment by closing it. Then he said, “Waffles?”

“When was the last time you got fucking waffles, mate?” Chuck asked, grinned at him, and then nodded at Raleigh - who was glad they’d sort of discussed things before Yancy had turned up. Kid was a mouthy little shit, but he was hot, and definitely cute once he was fucked out. “This place is a shithole,” he said, before he closed the door. “You should ask dad for some more jobs, more work.”

Silence hung in the room between them, and at first, Raleigh thought Yancy would be mad he didn’t save him any waffles. He picked up the mutant waffle made from the last of the batter and stuffed most of it in his mouth.

“Please tell me you didn’t fuck our boss's underage son,” Yancy said.

Raleigh’s eyes widened as he chewed and he almost spit the waffle out. “What? He lives in an upperclass dorm in a single-”

“He’s, like, seventeen, maybe,” Yancy said. “Herc said he’s a genius or something.”

“Oh God,” Raleigh said, and looked at his cell phone. “Oh God.”

“You’re going to die,” Yancy said, and grinned.

* * *

 

Herc must not have known, on Monday, and Raleigh remained a member of the living. Tuesday and Wednesday passed without incident, as well, and he got bogged down in an essay and actually thought that he was going to get out this whole thing relatively unscathed, until Chuck texted him on Thursday.

_u still fucking busy? u owe me a proper date._

_if we go by traditional roles, you’re the one that owes me a date_ Raleigh replied. He debated a winking face.

_u r a fucking weirdo, Ray. srsly, tho - hungry?_

Normally, Raleigh would have been ecstatic - the Hot Dimpled Stranger Who Turned Out to Be Awesome at Sex was proposing an actual date, instead of just a series of mutually satisfactory sexual encounters.

But this was Raleigh Becket’s luck. How bad was seventeen and twenty-three? Six years was probably bad. Probably very bad, even with consent, or - how did you even look that up? He wished he knew a law student.

He considered the consequences.

Might as well have more awesome sex before he died, strangled and kept in a flower cooler until Herc thought it was safe to dispose of the body. Or turned him into fertilizer.

_Oh, fuck,_ Raleigh thought, _what if that’s his secret..?_

He shook his head and texted Chuck back. _sure where are you?_

_Over at my dad’s warehouse._ Chuck replied.

“Why?” Raleigh demanded.

“You are contemplating suicide, you know, fucking around with that kid,” Yancy said, looking up from his computer. “Or maybe he’ll just get you statutory rape of his little angel-”

“That little fuck is no angel,” Raleigh said. There was no good way around this. He typed the question into Google. “Ha! Age of consent in New York is seventeen,” he said.

“He’s still under eighteen,” Yancy said. “And you’re still a fucking pervert.”

“He has more chest hair than I do!” Raleigh said.

Yancy grinned at him. “Justify it however you want, Rals.”

_U want to meet me at Poppyseed?_ Raleigh asked. _right by warehouse?_

_OK. In half?_ Chuck asked. Raleigh confirmed it, then ran into his bedroom to grab something appropriate to wear.

“Seriously?” Yancy asked. “You’re going on a date with our secret mob boss boss’s son wearing that sweater?”

Raleigh glanced down. It was striped, and he had just bought it from the Gap, where the sales clerk had told him it was really in style this season. “What do you know?” Raleigh asked. Yancy was wearing an enormous cable knit cardigan because it had started to get cold, but their landlord refused to turn the heat on until November 1st.

Yancy just rolled his eyes at him.

* * *

 

“Aw fucking Christ!” Herc said, loud enough they could hear him even though the office door was closed. He stomped out and stared at the two of them for a moment as they put the lily bulbs into smaller containers from the wholesale order that come down from Canada that evening. “Stupid motherfucking!”

Yancy grinned. Raleigh hated him so much, his stupid smug smile that he had when he napped all the time and-

“That shipment doesn’t come down tonight, we lose...fuck! Stuck at the border my ass!” Herc said.

It was Raleigh’s turn to grin at Yancy.

Just some secret mob boss stuff, then.

Except - if Herc was admitting sort of as much...was he going to get them involved? Want them to be gangsters? Kill them, eventually, for their silence and Raleigh for fucking his seventeen year old son? Now that he’d actually fucked him, and, goddamn, kid knew how to bottom, too? Raleigh was so, so going to hell.

“Sorry, boys,” Herc said, after a moment. “Just had to vent.”

“Yeah,” Raleigh said.

“It happens,” Yancy added.

* * *

 

Mako shook her head at Raleigh when she handed him a cup of coffee in the school’s cafe. “Oh, Raleigh,” she said.

“What?” Raleigh asked.

“You are fucking Chuck,” Mako said.

“What?”

“Bates saw it on his cell phone when he set it down in the library to study,” Mako said. “There are very few Raleighs around.”

“I fucking hate college gossip, Christ!” Raleigh said, and then cursed again when he took a sip of his coffee and found it too hot. Mako shook her head at him sadly.

“You know I grew up with Chuck,” she said. “A little.”

“What?” Raleigh asked. But of course she had, if her father knew Herc well enough to pass along that he had a job they could take. Why hadn’t he thought of that before?

“He is also in my physics class,” she said. “I was not surprised to hear this because he had a goofy grin on his face-”

“Aw, he did?” Raleigh asked, and he smiled. “No, nevermind, shit, if Herc finds out he will-”

“Yes,” Mako said. “He is very protective, after Chuck’s mum died in the accident.” Raleigh winced.

“Will you protect me?” Mako, after all, had been his best friend since he had got her for a tutor in his mandatory science credit. He didn’t know why, but they just fit.

“Perhaps,” Mako said. “You do like him, right?”

“Yeah,” Raleigh said, and felt himself blush. “Yeah, I do. I mean, we’ve been on, like, two dates. Dinner. And a movie. A different time.”

“Good,” Mako said. “Maybe Herc will only cut off your toes, one at a time, you treat him well.”

Raleigh shook his head at her. “You’re as bad as Yance,” he said.

* * *

 

“You know the Beckets seem to think that you’re a secret mob boss,” Stacker said while they sat and drank some red wine that the Kaidanovsky’s had recommended. Herc liked to keep to local businesses and had been pleased to discover the great selection the Russians had in their shop - real fucking bold Shiraz from Australia.

Herc almost spit out some of the wine. “What?”

“Secret mob boss,” Stacker said, and he couldn’t contain his grin. “That’s what they told Mako.”

“Fucking hell,” said Herc. “Mako believe that?”

“Mako asked about your accounting practices, staged as a hypothetical,” Stacker replied, and grinned.

“Aw, hell, really, it’s just...I don’t want to pay all these goddamn taxes, is all,” Herc said. “Get taxed by the Canadians, get taxed by New York, by America…” He shook his head and clenched his fist. “You know, other day, girl that work’s at Mona’s, Lilah, made some kind of joke, mob joke, like, but Mako’s not friends with her, is she?”

Stacker shook his head. “Maybe one of the Beckets told her.”

Herc considered this. “I think she’s in the biology program,” he said. “Same as the older Becket. Christ, those two are complete fucking idiots.”

“They are,” Stacker replied.

“I could fire them.”

“But you won’t.”

“Naw, they need the job - hard up, without any parents,” Herc said. “Putting themselves through school and all. Plus they are hard workers. Just dumb asses.”

“Yes,” Stacker said.

They were hard workers, Herc thought - he had liked Raleigh a lot more when he told him how difficult a path he had to his undergraduate when it had just been the two of them out on a delivery. How Raleigh had worked construction for some time, first, to establish residency to get the tuition break and then second to just pay the bills. He was a good kid, really. His brother - well. That was a whole other- “Plus Chuck wouldn’t be too happy with you.”

Herc set his wine glass down. “What does Chuck have to do with it?” he asked.

Stacker grimaced. “You don’t...oh.”

“Don’t what?”

“Well, I assumed…” Stacker was checking for all available exits from Herc’s apartment. Once a Special Forces man, always a Special Forces man. “Just, Mako-”

“How do you get that girl to tell you everything?” Herc asked. Stacker took the bait.

“I think it’s just a maturity thing...Chuck’s young, still, but he’ll come around.” Stacker nodded at him. Thought he’d escaped.

“Won’t even tell me about his classes, let alone-”

“Well, dating one of your employees-” Stacker stopped and pressed his lips together.

Herc would have grinned, had he not found out the information that he had. He remembered, back when they met in Iraq - _you’re a sneaky shit, sergeant,_ Stacker said, _but we need sneaky shits._

“Becket,” he growled, instead.


	3. Chapter 3

“If I’m with Chuck, does this mean I’m part of Herc’s mob family?” Raleigh asked. It had been bothering him - and was Chuck involved in the crime? Or just aware of it? Did this have legal implications? They really needed to get a law student friend.

“What?” Yancy asked. He was sprawled on the couch, face down in the pillow, while they watched Netflix. Raleigh set his beer aside. They were making a little pyramid out of their bottles. It was taking shape nicely.

“Well, things have been going well-”

“You went on two dates. And are presumably fucking him, which-”

“He is hot,” Raleigh said.

Yancy considered this and scrunched his face. “If you like angry gingers.” Raleigh grinned in response. “Whatever, bro. You usually go for a completely different type of idiot-”

“Which is why this might work, and then I might have to-”

“Like, remember that English guy? He _was_ hot.”

“He didn’t think he was gay,” Raleigh replied. “And wrote really bad poetry.”

“Regardless-”

“I’m just, you know, I already did construction - but I’m not sure I’m ready to off people and…” Raleigh tried to think back to The Sopranos for other things that people in organized crime did. “Shake people down?”

“Fucking hell, Rals,” Yancy said. “You would make The Worst Mobster.”

“I’m bad ass,” Raleigh said.

Yancy reached for another beer and opened it on their coffee table. Raleigh grimaced. Even if it was from Ikea, it didn’t mean Yancy should keep nicking it when there was a perfectly good beer opener available. He just didn’t want to move to get it. Lazy fuck.

“No, Herc is bad ass. He was a helicopter pilot in Afghanistan. Special forces, or something,” Yancy said. Raleigh furrowed his brow. “Mako told me.”

“Mako didn’t tell me,” Raleigh said.

“Did you ask?” Yancy replied.

“When are you and Mako even alone together?”

“I texted her,” Yancy said. Raleigh’s eyes widened - Yancy and Mako texted? That was potentially hazardous. “She texted me. Wanted to make sure you were serious about Chuck.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” Raleigh asked. No one had any faith in him.

“Your history-”

“They all broke up with me! Or decided they weren’t gay - and why is that, anyway, I keep attracting these guys who just-”

“That’s how he met Stacker,” Yancy interrupted. “They were in the Coalition of the Willing or whatever. Stacker says he’s a real bad ass. Stacker, Raleigh.”

“Oh God,” Raleigh said. “I guess he could teach me to be bad ass?”

“If he approves of you fucking his precious baby senseless,” Yancy replied.

“Sometimes he fucks me - do you think that will help?” Raleigh asked.

“I would pretend to be the most submissive bottom in the history of bottoming,” Yancy replied. Raleigh just winced. “We need more beer.”

“Get it yourself, you lazy asshole,” Raleigh said. Yancy groaned and rolled off the couch, knocking over their pyramid. “Aw, come on, man.” Yancy just grinned at him.

* * *

 

“Oi, Becket!” Raleigh and Yancy both looked over at Herc as they were gathering their things to leave for the day. Raleigh instantly felt his insides churn and got the distinct and unpleasant feeling that he was going to piss himself. Herc’s look was feral, his smile wide and toothy, and this was the look of a man who had killed people with his bare hands in Afghanistan or wherever he had been stationed.

Yancy just got that stupid loopy smile on his face - as though he wanted Raleigh to be creatively maimed, perhaps even killed. The fucker hadn’t even considered how he would make rent then.

“Yes, sir?” Raleigh asked. He swallowed. Had it been worth it? He thought of Chuck’s lips, plump from kissing, the freckles that spread across his shoulders, the way he had moaned his name. _Yeah,_ Raleigh decided. _Besides, as the great philosopher Billy Joel once said, only the good die young._

Herc advanced on them and Yancy took a step back. He was probably reaching for his phone. Raleigh hated him.

Then Herc was right in Yancy’s face, peering down at him and looking like he was considering bashing his head against the wall just for fun. “Uh-”

“The fuck you think you’re doing with my son, Becket?” he asked.

 _Sweet, sweet karma,_ Raleigh thought, though he did his best to look suitably appalled and judgmental towards his brother.

“I’m not, uh-”

“Oh, so you’re just dilly-dallying, then? You look like that type.” Yancy backed up, but Herc just followed, keeping the distance between them very small.

“No, I - Mr. Hansen, I’m-”

“Mr. Hansen now?” Herc asked.

Yancy shot Raleigh a look. Raleigh debated whether he should intercede. He decided to wait just a bit longer.

“He’s a right shit,” Herc said, “but he’s my right shit and you just-”

“But!” Yancy said, as Herc wrapped his hand around some of his shirt. Raleigh had no doubt he could have lifted him up. His arm muscles were bulging around his bad tattoos.

“Actually, sir, Yancy isn’t dating Chuck. I am,” Raleigh replied.

Herc slowly let Yancy go. Raleigh resisted the urge to grin at the wet stains under his arms. He turned and looked at Raleigh. He scrunched his face. “Huh.”

“Huh?” Yancy said.

“Figured, all the time you spend with Mako...are you dating Mako?” the last was said in a deep growl that made Raleigh take a few steps back as Herc advanced on him.

“Nope! No, just friends...uh, with Mako, I mean, I’m, uh, very gay.” Raleigh said. He was tempted to add _also your ridiculous son seduced me_ but decided it was not in his best interest.

“You’re dating Chuck,” Herc said.

“I would say so, uh, sir, but Chuck hasn’t really, uh…” Herc’s facial expression shifted and he took a step back from Raleigh.

“Little shit,” he said. “Kid’s going to graduate this spring at twenty and he…” Herc shook his head.

Raleigh blinked and took in the facts that had just been presented to him. He felt his lip curl in a snarl, but he quickly relaxed. Snarling at this point was bad. He could beat the shit out of his brother later - he had a good three inches and twenty pounds on Yancy to work with. He glanced over at him. Yancy was still a bit white and was shifting his expression, trying very hard not to look at Raleigh.

“Look,” Herc said, and he poked Raleigh in the chest. “You come over tonight for dinner. You free?”

“Uh…” Raleigh said. “Yes. Very much so.” He wasn’t - he had a study date with Mako, to help her with an essay she had to write for one of her humanities requirements, but she would understand.

“Good,” Herc said. “I don’t cook. Hope pizza’s OK.”

“Yes, absolutely, I practically live off of it,” Raleigh replied.

“Right then,” Herc said, and nodded his head. Then he looked at Yancy, debated whether he should apologize, and just shook his head at him.

Raleigh waited until they were outside before he kicked his brother in the shin. “Ow! Motherfucker!”

“Underage son?”

“I was just fucking with you! I didn’t think you would believe-”

“You are the worst older brother.”

“Fine,” Yancy said, and they started walking again. “Can we talk about how Hansen thought I was fucking Chuck?”

“What, afraid you come as gay?” Raleigh asked.

Yancy shook his head. He seemed to want to say something but decided against it. “Do I come off as sleazy?”

“Have you ever had a relationship?” Raleigh asked. “Aside from with your pillow?”

“Ew, Rals,” Yancy said, then realized what Raleigh had been getting at. “Uh. Well, there was...in high school, what’s her name-”

“You wrote notes and dropped them in her locker,” Raleigh replied.

“There was some heavy petting in the - look, OK, so maaaaybe I haven’t felt like-”

“I know,” Raleigh said, softly. “It’s because you don’t want to get attached...I get it.”

Yancy stopped and looked at him. “Aw, little bro,” he said. “That’s sweet.”

“Well.” Raleigh said, and then Yancy pulled him into a sort of hug with one arm and ruffled his hair.

“Dude,” said Yancy. “You have to have dinner with Herc Hansen and his son that you’re fucking.”

Raleigh’s mouth dropped open. “Shit.”

* * *

 

Raleigh made Yancy iron his button down - it was the least he could do, for all the stress he caused.

“You thinking he was seventeen didn’t stop you from fucking him, you pervert,” Yancy said as he set their ironing pad down on the kitchen counter.

“I, uh. Still! I was...conflicted,” Raleigh replied.

He thought about getting wine - that was what you did, when you got invited for dinner, right? But Herc did not seem to be the wine sort and worse, if he was, Raleigh was not. He would likely chose something terrible just because it had a penguin on it or something.

Beer, he decided. Beer was not objectionable. Unless it was Keystone.

So he got a six pack from a local brewery, shuddering slightly at how much he paid. Still. Circumstances.

He knocked on the door to the small house. He had forgot the address but didn’t need it - the gardens outside indicated that the person inside knew a good deal about flowers. It looked wild, but gorgeous, and most of the front lawn was taken up by flower beds or vegetable patches.

Some part of his brain noted that it didn’t exactly look like the kind of house a mob boss would live in, but he dismissed this. Just more camouflage.

“My fucking father,” said Chuck when he answered the door. He was wearing a button down shirt too, but his hair was wild.

Max barked at Raleigh, but it was a happy bark. Raleigh leaned down and pet his head. “Hey, handsome,” he said, then looked up and saw Herc leaning in an interior door jamb. “Hello, sir.”

“Herc is fine, Raaaaleigh,” said Herc.

Raleigh wondered if he was fucking with him, or if that was just the Australian way of saying his name. “I brought some beer,” he said. He held the six pack out towards his secret mob boss boss.

“Ah, thanks,” said Herc. “Come on in.”

Max walked behind Raleigh and Chuck as they entered the small dining room. The pizza box was open and the pizza was full of meat, there were plates and pint glasses. Raleigh smiled. The beer had been the right call.

“Max, sit,” Chuck said. Max looked dejected then waddled over to a little bed in the corner. Raleigh grinned when Max tucked himself into a soft, dark green blanket. “Good boy.”

Herc sat at the head of the table and Raleigh and Chuck at either side of him. Chuck slid his foot so that it touched Raleigh’s but this was not a tender gesture. He was baiting him.

He was a complete little shit. And Raleigh really liked him.

“So,” said Herc, and then he looked at Chuck. Raleigh furrowed his brow. “You’re dating?”

Raleigh pressed his mouth shut, smiled at Chuck, and nudged his foot.

“We’ve, ah, been on dates,” Chuck said. Herc narrowed his gaze and his brow furrowed. “Uh...sure?” Raleigh nodded his assent. “Yeah.”

“Good,” said Herc. He handed Raleigh a plate with a slice of pizza on it. “There you go, Becket.”

“Thank you,” Raleigh replied. Chuck grunted and got his own pizza and then opened his beer with the beer opened on the table. Raleigh resisted the urge to beam at him - he just got better! All the time!

“Classes all right, then?” Herc asked, and it took Raleigh a moment to realize he was asking him. He smiled at Raleigh.

And Raleigh realized his master plan.

He had lured him here for dinner so that Raleigh felt a false sense of security. Got his pizza and put it on a plate for him. Used him to embarrass the hell out of his son and get both of them to admit that they were dating.

So he could terrorize the both of them. Be _that_ dad.

If Herc Hansen was terrifying when he wasn’t aware Raleigh was with his little angel - well, what would he do with him when he broke his little angel’s heart?

Not to mention Raleigh’s impending life of crime.

“Raaaaleigh…” Chuck called.

“Oh,” Raleigh said. “Yes. Well. Good, I would say.”

“He’s majoring in English,” Chuck said, and then shoved pizza into his mouth.

Herc considered this - and it could really go either way. “Gold digging, then, oi?”

“Well, I...there’s a lot, actually, you can do with a B.A. in English.”

“Fuck,” said Chuck, and he shook his head at Raleigh like he was sorry for him.

“Mmm,” Herc said. “I’m sure there is. You’ll find, you know, just about any business, you need good communication skills.” He chewed some of his own pizza and nodded his head. “Look at what I do, for example.”

Raleigh swallowed hard and nodded.

“Lot of people, to manage. Make sure everyone is...satisfied.”

“The fuck are you on?” Chuck asked.

Herc ignored Chuck and leveled his gaze at Raleigh. “Someone like you could be very useful to a lot people. In a lot of ways.”

“I, well,” Raleigh managed. He looked at his beer. “Thank you.” Herc nodded and stared at him. Raleigh swallowed again. “I’m, uh, very trustworthy.”

“He’ll stand by me if he gets me knocked up, dad, don’t worry,” Chuck said, and nudged Raleigh’s foot. Raleigh couldn’t understand why Chuck wasn’t on the same page as he and Herc - but then again, engineers and other scientific minded people could be dense when it came to human interaction. Just look at Yancy.

“Fuck’s sake, Becket, I am not a secret mob boss,” Herc said, and shook his head.

Raleigh felt himself go from pale to lobster in under ten seconds, faster than Chuck had ever blushed in his presence. He looked down at his pizza and considered whether he could effectively smother himself in the cheese.

“What?” Chuck asked. Raleigh took his beer and began to drink, wanted to see how much he could get down without having to breath. “Secret mob boss?”

“Oi, he and Other Becket thought that-”

“It was just…” Raleigh said, and nothing, _nothing,_ that he said wasn’t going to make him look like anything less than a complete fucking idiot. “The mugger?”

Chuck looked between the two of them and burst out laughing. He made a little snorting sound that Raleigh would have found adorable under most other circumstances. “Used to be special forces, Ray,” Chuck said, finally.

“And there were a lot of guys in suits who had to take care of things-”

“My Canadian greenhouse suppliers,” Herc said. “Used to be, they were all hippies. Now they’re hipsters, or something, wear hats.” He shook his head, disgusted.

“And cash-”

“Hate taxes,” Herc said, and shook his head.

“He’s a fucking libertarian,” Chuck said, and also shook his head.

“Huh,” said Raleigh. “Well, this is...embarrassing.”

“Very,” Chuck said. “Though, really, dad, flower wholesaling is a bit-”

“I like gardening,” Herc said, and fixed both of them with a determined stare that was pretty much etched in steel. Raleigh know understood why Yancy had sweat so much.

“That’s...you have very good gardens, outside,” Raleigh said.

“Thank you,” Herc said, and smiled at him, though his eyes remained the same.

“You are a real dumb cunt,” Chuck said, to Raleigh. He had to swallow - he hoped this didn’t change Chuck’s perception of him. It seemed like Chuck had been calling him a dumb cunt since the beginning, though, and the Internet revealed that this might be some kind of term of affection in Australia.

“You are,” Herc said. His smile was genuine, then, and Raleigh exhaled for the first time in what felt like days.

“Yeah, uh…” He pressed his lips together and nodded, resisting the urge to point out that Herc had initially thought that Chuck was having sex with his brother. That was probably more just a function of lack of gaydar than anything else, though. “Yeah.”

* * *

 

“Can I ask you a...question?” Raleigh asked, as he walked Chuck back from Herc’s house to Raleigh’s apartment.

“Yeah, why not?” Chuck replied.

“When did you, uh...let your dad know..?” Chuck scowled, slightly, and shook his head. “You don’t have to...just, he seems, uh…”

“Yeah, well, he was not when he caught me and Trevor Hinman making out - and thank fuck that was all we were doing. And then when he decided to talk to me about it…” Chuck shook his head and looked a bit like he was experiencing a painful and strange flashback.

Raleigh didn’t prod.

“Your dad?” Chuck asked.

“He wasn’t, uh...really around,” Raleigh said. He knew Chuck had just revealed something personal, but that was just a little bit… “And Yancy, I mean, no fucks were given.”

“Yeah, your brother give fucks about anything?” Chuck asked.

“Sleep,” Raleigh replied. “You don’t want to fuck with his sleep.”

“That why we’re headed back there.”

“To watch a movie,” Raleigh said, quite serious - so Herc Hansen wasn’t a secret mob boss, he was still a complete badass and might be following them, special operations style. And Raleigh had said they were going to watch a movie.

“He’s not in fucking camo flowing us Becket, fuck, he’s probably all cuddled up with Max or something,” Chuck said.

“Aw,” Raleigh said.

“Yeah, real fucking cute,” Chuck replied.

Raleigh opened the door to the apartment. Yancy was laying prone on the couch, surfing through their saved Netflix list.

“Hey,” Raleigh said. “Remember Chuck?”

“How was your Hallmark Moment?” Yancy asked. Raleigh felt a bit bad for him. It looked like he had cereal for dinner again.

“Terrifying,” Raleigh replied.

“Herc told him he’s not a secret mob boss,” Chuck said.

Yancy picked his head up from the couch and laughed. “Wait, you thought-”

“You agreed!”

“I was drunk!”

“You agreed at work,” Raleigh said. More hissed.

“At six in the morning, or some shit, I was probably half asleep, fuck, kid,” said Yancy. He shook his head at him like he really should have known better.

Chuck just closed his eyes and shook his head. “Oi, that the new Call of Duty?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Yancy replied. “You any good - I need someone decent to run a campaign with-”

“Aw, come on,” said Raleigh. “God, your life is so hard.” He grabbed a controller and tossed it at Chuck, then picked one up for himself.

* * *

 

“Instill the fear of God into him?” Stacker asked, as Herc opened up a bottle of wine.

“Something like that,” Herc said.

“Why did you even think it was the older one?” Stacker asked.

Herc shrugged his shoulders. “Seemed the most likely culprit. Raleigh seemed like he had too much sense...with Chuck.” Herc shook his head. “Those boys.”

“Amazed they survived this long?” Stacker asked.

“Yeah,” Herc replied. He slid a glass of wine towards Stacker. “He about pissed himself.” Stacker grinned at this. “Better that it’s Raleigh. Kid’s all right.”

“Mako thinks quite highly of him,” Stacker replied. “And she has relatively little tolerance for bullshit.”

“Yeah, don’t I remember,” Herc replied, remembering some of Mako and Chuck’s epic blow-ups when they had been teenagers. Chuck was only half the shit now that he was then. “Had to break it to him I wasn’t a secret mob boss.”

“How did he handle it?” Stacker asked.

“Just about tried to melt away,” Herc said. “Felt a bit bad, but…” He shook his head. “Had to be done.”

“You’d make a good secret mob boss,” Stacker said.

“Maybe should look into it,” Herc said. “Would probably help convince the pest people to actually take care of the goddamn aphids keep eating at the lily bulbs.”

“Mmm,” Stacker said. “You want to talk gardening all night, Hercules, or actually get down to some-”

“No, do not say it,” Herc said. He shook his head. “Just...no.”

“Plowing?” Stacker said, and grinned. It had started in some desolate stretch of Afghanistan in a tent, in the winter, trying to find the stupidest sexual euphemisms that they could.

“Plowing through this wine,” Herc said. “Don’t you have six a.m. training with your boys tomorrow, anyway?”

“Eh, while I can tell when they’re hungover, they can’t tell when I am,” Stacker replied, and smiled slightly. “Kids these days, really. Except Mako, really. She’s quite sensible.” He gave Herc a smug smile.

“Just wait,” Herc said. “Besides, she was at least curious about-”

“About the plausibility of your being a secret mob boss, rather than just a tax dodger,” Stacker said. “Still criminal.”

“Marginally,” Herc said. He leaned his wine glass down so that Max could lap some up. “Depending.”


End file.
